Family mourns teen who died of suspected meningitis

SAN CARLOS  A freshman at Patrick Henry High School who died from a suspected bacterial meningitis infection Thursday was identified by her family as 14-year-old Jewelean Pimentel.

On her Facebook page, the ninth-grader was pictured in her cheerleader uniform with angel wings and a halo.

“You can’t take a second for granted because you never, never know,” her mother, Monica Pimentel, said in a statement issued Saturday. “Monday, Tuesday, she was a bright, happy sunny girl.”

The family said Jewelean complained of a headache after school Tuesday, was hospitalized Wednesday, and died Thursday night at Rady Children’s Hospital.

Her death was the first believed to be caused by meningitis in San Diego County this year, county health officials said.

Donations

Donations to the Pimental family, to help cover medical and funeral expenses, may be made at this website: gofundme.com/6wjtqc.

Bacterial meningitis is an infection of the membranes surrounding the brain and spinal cord. It requires close contact to spread, such as sharing a drinking glass or kissing.

Symptoms include fever, intense headache, lethargy, stiff neck and/or a rash that does not blanch under pressure.

Jewelean was up to date on all her vaccinations, her family said.

Her family described her as athletic and competitive, a member of the cheerleading squad Wrath, and a softball player. She played flute in the school marching band and was in Girl Scouts for nine years. She loved animals and talked of becoming a veterinarian.

“She could have been anything,” her father, Joey Pimentel, a postal carrier, said in the statement.

Jewelean was the oldest of four children, Joey Jr., 11, Joaquin, 7, and Jorja, 5. She helped coach her little sister’s cheer team.

“She loved helping the little kids, she loved making up little routines for them,” her mother said in the statement.

Last year, an outbreak struck the University of California Santa Barbara and Princeton University, requiring both schools to import a vaccine from Europe not yet available in the United States.

Former La Costa Canyon High School lacrosse star Aaron Loy, 18, who was a freshman at UC Santa Barbara at the time of the outbreak, had to have both feet amputated after a meningitis infection.

After spending 11 weeks hospitalized, Loy was able to return to his Carlsbad home.